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Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Colony 13: News - 1st battle - Rescue the contractors

++++ Colony13 News - Rescue the Contractors, er, Survivors
++++ "News from the colony where every day is a Thursday ++++

Overview - 5 minutes into the future, err, I mean, mission

Since I wanted to use the asymmetric warfare rules from Force on Force, I tried out the "Rescue the Contractors" scenario.

Simply by wanting to run this scenario, I have discovered that there is an active Jawa (Star Wars) insurgency! Incursions into the Jawa area are met with mobs of the little hooded guys intent on stealing any piece of technology they can find. I realized that you never actually see a Jawa in the movies -- you only see their hoods and glowing eyes. Turns out they are reptilian (Khurasan miniatures Chewk Tribesmen).

What could these civvies possibly know about Bugs??

So for the first Sci-Fi Crossover (to borrow someone else's term), the Light Mobile Infantry of the Starship Troopers Movie (I plan to do ST: The Book later) faced off against the Jawas of Star Wars. The objective? The recently crashed escape pod of Ripley and Newt. No one knew who these people were, but they had been broadcasting a warning about Bugs as they came in, so SI-CON was interested!

Accordingly, Lieutenant "Ricky" Ricardo of the 501st Light Mobile Infantry ("Ricky's Raccoons") (Khurasan Corporate Marines)deployed from their dropships at the edge of a colony known only as "Colony13." They were given a strict 60 minute timetable (6 turns).

Jawa Fedayeen sniper accidentally captured on holo by Universe Today reporter <REDACTED> a split second before 1st squad opened fire

1st Squad immediately spotted a sniper and blew him away as 2nd squad advanced to cover behind the Hilton hotel. (It was at this point that I realized just how extremely lethal a USMC fireteam is in Fof terms!). The Jawa response was minimal - each time they opened up the Mobile Infantry simply wiped out that group. The only significant action was that 4 Jawa Chieftains were making their way behing the Hilton -- to join up with a large group already there who needed to be commanded into the fight.

Turn 2 passed much the same. But Turn 3 - oi! The Fedayeen Jawa made some progress in turn 3. An RPG hit against 1st squad caused the first MI casualty and forced the squad back into cover of the power plant. And behind the Hilton the leaders arrived -- as did signifant reinforcements. And 2nd Squad had just moved out of cover towards the objective -- the civilians hiding behind their still smoking escape capsule.

19 Jawas swarmed into the Hilton and took up position along the rooftop. But the MI spotted the danger and 2nd squad hosed the building down, putting down half the mob and causing 2 of them to run away. Nevertheless, the remainder were able to drive the MI into cover and caused another casualty.Hmm. 30 minutes into the mission and all of the MI troopers are pinned down in cover and each squad has 1 casualty. I realized that the only way to finish the mission would be if 1st squad ran toward the civilians, picked them up, and wasted no time in hustling them off the board. Otherwise time was going to run out and it was game over, man, game over.Besides -- the charge of 1st squad would be glorious!

1st Squad's casualty had just had the breath knocked out of him -- so the squad took off toward the objective. 2nd Squad provided overwatch and decimated the Fedayeen Jawa in the Hilton, rendering them combat ineffective.

After that -- it was a walk in the park. 1st squad moved with the civies toward the west board edge and prepared to exit -- and along the way blew away another Jawa mob who were just beginning to gather to block their way. 2nd squad followed more slowly with their lightly wounded casualty and suffered one last RPG attack which thankfully caused no more casualties.

Despite how it turned out, this was a tense game. The time limit means that if the trooper units get driven back too far, they won't have time to get the civilians off the board. I need more d8s. :-) You roll handfuls of them in Force On Force for regular troops (which, and I hate to admit this, is probably an improvement over StarGrunt in that the law of averages comes into play more)

Also, I need a better name for the Hilton. Hotel Paradise? Ideas, anyone?